The sweep the NHL schedule from Wednesday night starts in Detroit where the shorthanded St Louis Blues edged the Red Wings, 2-1.
“The Red Wings are a good team and this is always a tough building to play in,” said Blues captain David Backes, who had two assists. “It seems like the fans are right on top of you. We had only five defensemen and we were able to do the little things.”
David Backes had two assists in Blues win over Wings – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
Injuries have plagued the Blues’ backline and Ken Hitchcock had few options ahead of the game.
“We had to change our defensive structure,” Hitchcock said. “We’ve done it three times in the past couple of weeks. The guys have been able to adjust.”
Brian Elliott made 29 saves for the Blues to backstop the tired defensive corps in front of him.
“Everything he saw he stopped,” Backes said. “He kept us in the game and we were able to reward him with a couple of goals and get him the win.”
Ty Rattie and Dmitrij Jaskin scored for the Blues who improved to 28-15-7.
Henrik Zetterberg scored the lone goal for Detroit.
“I said after last game we needed more net presence and we needed to hit the net more,” Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill said. “I thought after this game that our net presence was pretty good, especially in the second. Maybe not in the first. I thought we needed to hit the net more. I’ll be honest with you. We need to keep playing the way we played tonight.”
Petr Mrazek made 18 saves in the loss.
“I think it was we couldn’t score. I thought we had chances,” Zetterberg said. “I think we started right off the hop and had some real good chances the first couple shifts. I thought the first 10 minutes we created a lot. They got a little bit back in the game, but overall I thought we created enough chances to score more than one goal.”
In Denver, another tight game ended with the Avalanche edging the Buffalo Sabres, 2-1.
Francois Beauchemin scored the winner for the Avs with less than 40 seconds left in regulation.
Alex Tanguay assisted on the winner and also scored a goal in the win.
“It’s been quite a while,” said Tanguay, who has three goals in 37 games this season. “I haven’t been on the scoresheet as much as I would like, but a little before Christmas I started to play a little bit better. I just can’t get in a groove and hopefully this will spark me to help the team a little bit more.”
It was Beauchemin’s sixth goal of the season.
“It was a nice pass off the wall from Alex and I was able to keep it in,” Beauchemin said. “I had a lane at the net and I just threw it and it hit something in front. Sometimes that’s all you need to get the goal. That’s what we needed to get that win.”
Evander Kane scored on the power play in the second period to give the Sabres a 1-0 lead.
“We certainly gave them the opportunity with the four-minute power play,” Sabres coach Dan Bylsma said. “I thought we were going to steal the game with the kill. It was a crucial part of the game. We didn’t get those guys off the ice from the kill and they took advantage and scored the goal right after.”
Semyon Varlamov picked up the win on 27 saves and Robin Lehner absorbed the loss on 33 saves.
“We couldn’t get through the neutral zone the first two periods,” Beauchemin said. “We tried to be too cute, too fancy. We were going through guys in the neutral zone and they were just coming back our way and we were stuck in our zone for a while. In the third we got back to the simple game, getting the red line and getting it deep and in on the forecheck. When we do that we’re really successful.”
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